Sundance review: 'American Pachuco' is the tribute that director Luis Valdez deserves, an exuberant history of the father of Chicano theater and cinema

Director David Alvarado presents an exuberant biographical portrait of a truly original storyteller in “American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez,” a great example of giving someone their flowers while they’re still around to appreciate them.

If you look at Luis Valdez’ IMDb entry, you’ll see the high spots of his career, namely, that he wrote and directed two of the landmark movies of Mexican American film in the 1980s, “Zoot Suit” in 1981 and “La Bamba” in 1987. And Alvarado gets to those movies in time — but there’s a lot of territory to cover first.

Born in Delano, Calif., in 1940, to migrant farmworkers, Valdez spent his early years as his parents did, traveling around the Southwest picking crops. But he and his older brother, Frank, had dreams of a bigger life, by going to college. Frank studied math and became an engineer, married a white woman and largely pulled away from his Chicano heritage. Luis studied English, to become a playwright and poet.

After his first play, “The Shrunken Head of Pancho Villa,” Luis Valdez met Cesar Chavez, who was leading the unionization effort of farm workers in California. Valdez convinced Chavez to let him start a theater company, to entertain the farm laborers and dramatize their struggle for better working conditions. It was street theater, improvised and with no budget — and it’s where Valdez met his future (and current) wife, Lupe.

Some time later, Valdez struck out on his own, creating a series of El Teatro Campesino theater locations in Southern California. He and his troupe also branched out into video, like with the satirical “Los Venditos” (“The Sellouts”), set in a store where companies could purchase the perfect Mexican American for their needs. 

Then came Valdez’ first large-scale project, a play depicting the so-called Zoot Suit riots in Los Angeles in 1942. The play, “Zoot Suit,” is narrated by the Pachuco, a dapper and intimidating character — and in casting the play, Valdez found the perfect embodiment of the Pachuco in an unknown actor named Edward James Olmos.The importance of the Pachuco character is underlined in the documentary, as Alvarado has him, and Olmos, narrate his film.

“Zoot Suit” goes from triumphant performances in Los Angeles, an ill-fated Broadway run, and the movie adaptation, which also starred Olmos. After that, the movie moves on to Valdez’ next movie, a biopic of the ‘50s rock icon Ritchie Valens, in “La Bamba” — and it’s a thrill watching the numerous audition tapes that Valdez poured through before finding his young star, Lou Diamond Phillips. (In one interview segment, Phillips recalls that at his audition, he saw a headshot of John Stamos in the producer’s office and figured the part was already cast.)

Alvarado is blessed with a wealth of interview subjects, including Valdez’ siblings (his brother Daniel co-starred in “Zoot Suit” on stage and screen), the labor organizer Dolores Huerta, Olmos, Phillips, director Taylor Hackford (who produced “La Bamba”), and brief moments with the likes of Cheech Marin and Linda Ronstadt. The capper, though, is Luis Valdez himself, 84 at the time of filming and still as vibrant as the archival footage showed him to be in his youth. 

This tribute may be late in coming, but it’s richly deserved, and pitched with the same energy and intensity of Valdez’ work. Catch it if it gets to theaters, or when PBS airs it on its “American Masters” series.

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‘American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez’

★★★1/2

Screening in the U.S. Documentary competition of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Not rated, but probably PG-13 for references to violence and sexuality, and for language. Running time: 92 minutes.

The film screens again Sunday, Feb. 1, 6 p.m., at the Eccles Theatre, Park City. It also screens on Sundance’s web portal, now through Sunday, Feb. 1, at 11:55 p.m. Mountain time.

Sundance review: 'Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!' centers on a dance-loving widow getting back in the world, and benefits from the utterly charming Rinko Kikuchi

For a story about grief and loss, director Josef Kubota Wladyka’s “Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!” Is remarkably exuberant and, literally, light on its feet as it follows a woman’s dance-filled journey through widowhood.

The great Japanese actor Rinko Kikuchi (“Babel,” “Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter”) stars as Haru, who lives in Tokyo with her Mexican-born husband, Luis (Alejandro Edda), where they live a blissful life of cooking meals for each other and sharing an impressive collection of vintage vinyl. Their shared passion, besides each other, is ballroom dancing, and they’re in the midst of a competition when Luis suffers a fatal heart attack.

After dealing with the funeral arrangements, and disagreeing with Luis’s father (Damián Alcázar) about how to tend to Luis’ remains, Haru is at a loss for how to carry on. Her sisters, Yuki (You Yoshida) and Hiromi (played by the Japanese presenter/actor YOU), suggest she go back to the dance studio where she and Luis used to practice, so they do.

At the studio, Haru becomes quite smitten with the new instructor, Fedir (Alberto Guerra), a Cuban dancer who was a pro on Japan’s version of “Dancing With the Stars.” Hiromi reads a rumor online that Fedir and his dancer wife, Mila (Keren Louis), have an “open” marriage, and that he got caught in bed with a gymnast from “Dancing With the Stars.” Would this be an opening for Haru, aka Ha-Chan, to see how far flirting with the new dance instructor will go? Yes, yes it would.

The other complication to Haru’s small obsession with Fedir is that she keeps seeing Luis in their house. Sometimes he appears in a giant black bird costume, like a mascot for a very depressed football team. 

Wladyka, co-writing with Nicholas Huynh, neatly maneuvers from Haru’s daily life to her waking dream state, which sometimes manifests in musical numbers — including an extended riff on “Dirty Dancing” that’s a delight to watch unfold. The lightness is deceptive, though, as the film looks through it to find Haru’s deep grieving for Luis.

Kikuchi’s performance is enchanting, which should not be a surprise to anyone who saw “Kumiko” at Sundance a dozen years earlier. Often, she deploys a deadpan that makes Buster Keaton look expressive — but when she smiles, which she does often with Eddo’s Luis, it melts your heart.

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‘Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!’

★★★1/2

Screening in the U.S. Dramatic competition of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Not rated, but probably R for some sexuality and language. Running time: 122 minutes.

The film screens again: Friday, Jan. 30, 2:30 p.m., Redstone Cinemas 4, Park City; Sunday, Feb. 1, 8:30 p.m., Park City Library, Park City. Also screening on Sundance’s web portal, now through Sunday, Feb. 1. 

Sundance review: 'Carousel' is a romantic drama that goes deeper than most, and showcases Chris Pine and Jenny Slate in career-best performances

In the romantic drama “Carousel,” writer-director Rachel Lambert tenderly and precisely creates two characters who struggle to figure out whether love is worth the cost the second time around.

Chris Pine stars as Noah, a doctor who runs a family practice in suburban Cleveland with his late father’s old medical partner (Sam Waterston). Noah is divorced, and raising his 17-year-old daughter, Maya (Abby Ryder Fortson) — which can be tricky, because Maya is a perfectionist who angrily punishes herself when she’s not doing things perfectly.

Noah is a bit lonely, but settled into his life. That changes when he learns that Rebecca (Jenny Slate), his high school sweetheart, is back in town. Rebecca has recently left Washington, D.C., where she worked as a congressional aide and was, by the accounts of her colleagues, really good at it. Now she’s home helping her parents (Jessica Harper and Jeffrey DeMunn) sell the family house and move into a condo.

On paper, the reunion of these two former lovers could be the basis for a Hallmark Channel movie. But Lambert, in a heartbreaking follow-up to her sensitive 2023 Sundance drama “Sometimes I Think About Death,” imbues the characters and their journey with warmth and depth that take the emotional stakes to a much higher level. 

Lambert doesn’t traffic in long, soulful monologues where the characters pour their hearts out. The strength of “Carousel” is that these characters struggle with getting the words out, because they’ve become so practiced at bottling themselves up. There’s an argument between Noah and Rebecca at the movie’s midpoint that totally rips your guts out, and could be a masterclass in the expression of romantic longing.

Pine and Slate are wonderful, together and separately, each doing perhaps the best work of their careers. They’re well-matched by Fortson — grown up some from her beautiful work in “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret.” — who makes Maya’s crippling anxiety a physical force.

One more thing about “Carousel”: Though Lambert deals with some weighty issues and tough conversations, it’s ultimately a hopeful movie. Love might conquer all, but the people in love have to do the work — and when they do, the results are joyous.

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‘Carousel’

★★★★

Screening in the U.S. Dramatic competition of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Not rated, but probably R for sexual content and language. Running time: 103 minutes.

The film screens again: Thursday, Jan. 29, 11:15 a.m., The Ray, Park City; Friday, Jan. 30, 6 p.m., Holiday Village 3, Park City. Also screening on Sundance’s web portal, Thursday through Sunday, Jan. 29 to Feb. 1.

Sundance review: 'The Musical' is a cringe comedy about a middle-school teacher's revenge, but it's too cringey and not enough comedy

The contract a filmmaker signs with their audience when making a cringe comedy is a simple one: Be cringey, but be funny, too. It’s a pact that director Giselle Bonilla and screenwriter Alexander Heller break with “The Musical,” by leaning far too much in the cringe and shortchanging us on the funny.

Doug Liebowitz, played by the Tony-winning actor Will Brill, is a study in thwarted ambition. He’s an aspiring playwright, desperate to land a writing fellowship that will lift him from his small town, where he’s working as a middle-school drama teacher. Also, his girlfriend, Abigail (Gillian Jacobs), the school’s art teacher, broke up with him over the summer, and she tells him she’s now dating Michael Brady (Rob Lowe), their school’s smarmy principal.

When Michael declares that Cedarcrest Middle School is on the verge of making the state’s list of blue-ribbon schools, Doug sees his opportunity to exact his revenge. After announcing that he’s overseeing his drama kids in a production of “West Side Story,” an innocuous choice that Michael says is sure to impress the blue-ribbon judges, Doug secretly starts mounting an alternative: A musical he wrote about 9/11. 

Bonilla and Heller generate some caustic humor in the rehearsal scenes, as Doug manipulates his students into taking on this tasteless task and hiding it from parents, teachers and other students — while also navigating the plotting of his two wannabe stars, Lata (Melanie Herrera) and Cindy (Chyler Emery Stern), who overflow with toxic theater-kid energy.

With such a set-up, you’d expect the payoff to be worth the trouble — so it’s a sad irony that “The Musical” falls apart when it presents the actual musical. Done right, we would leave the theater laughing at the offensiveness and humming the tunes, like we’ve just seen the 21st century version of “Springtime for Hitler.” Unfortunately, Bonilla and Heller don’t deliver, and the stick of dynamite they’ve lit turns out to be a damp squib.

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’The Musical’

★★

Screening in the U.S. Dramatic competition of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Not rated, but probably R for language and mature themes. Running time: 84 minutes.

The film screens again: Thursday, Jan. 29, 6 p.m., Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, Salt Lake City; Friday, Jan. 30, 9:30 p.m., Redstone Cinemas 4, Park City; Saturday, Jan. 31, 9 p.m., The Ray, Park City. Also screening on Sundance’s web portal, Thursday through Sunday, Jan. 29 to Feb. 1. 

Sundance review: 'Take Me Home' is a moving story of two sisters, one with a disability — played tenderly by the director's sister, who has the same disability

Narrative films seldom get as personal as what writer-director Liz Sargent does in “Take Me Home,” which depicts the delicate bond between two sisters, one of them with a cognitive disability — and that sister is played by the director’s sister, Anna Sargent.

Anna, a Korean adoptee who’s 38 years old, lives in Florida with her parents, Bob (Victor Slezak) and Joan (Marceline Hugot), who help take care of her. Anna’s sister, Emily (Ali Ann), was also adopted by Bob and Joan, and lives in Brooklyn — and gets annoyed when Anna calls her while she’s at work. On one hot day, though, Anna calls Emily in a panic, because Mom isn’t moving.

Joan’s death upends the order of Anna’s life. Joan wasn’t just taking care of Anna, but also Bob, who’s showing signs of dementia. Emily comes down from Brooklyn and tries to help Anna figure out a new living situation — but learns that space at an assisted living center is expensive, hard to find, and won’t wait for Anna’s Medicaid account to kick in. There’s also the fact that Anna isn’t a child, and wants to have some agency in what happens in her life going forward.

Liz Sargent handles this material better than any filmmaker I can recall. This isn’t some “Rain Man” situation, where a non-disabled actor is playing someone with a cognitive disability and we’re all supposed to marvel at their acting skill. Because Anna Sargent is playing a character who is dealing with the same challenges as she is in the real world, she provides a level of understanding that invites us to understand as well. 

“Take Me Home” works with no emotional gimmicks, no false pity, no condescension. Just a real person showing us, through this artifice of a movie drama, how real their life can get.

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‘Take Me Home’

★★★1/2

Screening in the U.S. Dramatic competition of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Not rated, but probably PG-13 for thematic material and some language. Running time: 91 minutes.

The film screens again: Tuesday, Jan. 27, 1:10 p.m., Redstone Cinemas 2, Park City; Wednesday, Jan. 28, 6:30 p.m., Broadway Centre Cinemas 6, Salt Lake City; Friday, Jan. 30, 4:40 p.m., Redstone Cinemas 2, Park City; Sunday, Feb. 1, 9:30 a.m., Holiday Village Cinemas 1, Park City. Also screening on Sundance’s web portal, Thursday through Sunday, Jan. 29 to Feb. 1. 

Sundance review: 'Joybubbles' introduces people to a singular person, using his talents to give himself the childhood he missed out on

By one very important criteria, director Rachael J. Morrison’s “Joybubbles” succeeds as a documentary — because it introduces someone most people have never heard of, and shows us not only why the person matters but why your life would have been improved if you had met them.

The man known as Joybubbles was born blind in 1949, something that many people at that time believed doomed him to an incomplete life. He became obsessed early on with telephones, and figured out at age 5 that he could dial phone numbers by clicking the hang-up switch quickly. Two years later, he discovered that if he whistled — his pitch was perfect, the movie tells us — he could activate phone switches. In college in Florida, he made friends by using his well-pitched whistle to call long distance numbers for his classmates, without paying for them.

This, Morrison’s film tells us, was the beginning of the “phone phreak” era — an early version of hacking, using technology in ways that were innovative and would irritate the tech companies who were missing out on money they might otherwise get.

From there, Joybubbles’ obsession with the phone led him to create a recorded hotline. The hotline carried a ridiculous name — Zzzzyzzerrific Funline — so it would be the last listing in the phone book.

The sweetness and light of “Joybubbles” doesn’t keep viewers from encountering some dark passages. The worst is the news that the boy would become Joybubbles suffered from the childhood trauma of being sexually abused. That abuse, we’re told, caused him to revert to a childlike state, where his fascination with “Mister Rogers Neighborhood” grew with every viewing.

Morrison has unearthed a treasure trove of footage, showing Joybubbles — the name they chose to make their legal name — figuring out just how much of his boyhood was stifled by his abuse. The amazing thing about the film is how Joybubbles worked to make sure their adulthood was like a second childhood. Considering what we see and hear from this remarkable person, there’s no doubt that they earned it.

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‘Joybubbles’

★★★

Screening in the U.S. Documentary competition of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Not rated, but probably PG-13 for thematic material and some language. Running time: 79 minutes.

The film screens again: Tuesday, Jan. 27, 9 a.m., Redstone Cinemas 1, Park City; Thursday, Jan. 29, 12:30 p.m., Holiday Village Cinemas 1, Park City; Friday, Jan. 30, 9:30 p.m., Broadway Centre Cinemas 6, Salt Lake City; Saturday, Jan. 31, 2:45 p.m., Park City Library, Park City. Also screening on Sundance’s web portal, Thursday through Sunday, Jan. 29 to Feb. 1. 

Sundance review: 'Who Killed Alex Odeh?' is a riveting murder mystery that lays out the political reasons that justice remains elusive 40 years later

A murder mystery that’s also a cautionary tale for our political present, “Who Killed Alex Odeh?” explores a 40-year-old case of terrorism on American shores — and how the suspects, long identified, have eluded justice for so long.

Alex Odeh was the West coast director of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, a group that advocated for equal treatment of people of Arab heritage, particularly Palestinian people. During his career, Odeh made efforts to educate people on negative stereotypes against Arabs in the movies. (One example cited in the film is “Back to the Future,” when Marty McFly is trying to outrace terrorists.)

On Oct. 11, 1985, Odeh entered the ADC’s office in Santa Ana, California, and a massive bomb exploded. Odeh was killed, and eight others were injured. According to the case presented by filmmakers Jason Osder and William Lafi Youmans, it’s been fairly clear from the beginning who the likely suspects were — men linked to an extremist organization, the Jewish Defense League.

Osder and Youmans trace the history of the JDL, launched by the controversial rabbi and activist Meir Kahane, who advocated for the removal of all Palestinians from Israel. Kahane said the Palestinians should be relocated alive, but he wasn’t so particular that he would have complained if they were killed. And Kahane amassed a fair-sized following of people who felt the same way.

The filmmakers introduce us to David Sheen, an Israeli journalist who has specialized in chronicling the rise of Israeli’s far-right movement, going back to Kahane and further. He has identified three men who are very likely suspects in Odeh’s killing. One was imprisoned in the United States for other crimes (and paroled in 2020), while the other two escaped and got on a plane to Israel. (I’ve opted not to list these three by name, in part because one of them is famously litigious.)

Order and Youmans carefully work through Sheen’s reporting, the steps he took to confirm the identities of the men believed to have been responsible for Odeh’s death. They also connect the dots between two of the suspects and the current leadership in the Israeli government, which may provide an explanation for why they were never extradited. And they give Odeh’s widow, Norma, and oldest daughter, Helena, their chance to tell Alex Odeh’s story, and bear witness to the dangers of letting a case go cold because of political expedience. 

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‘Who Killed Alex Odeh?’

★★★1/2

Screening in the U.S. Documentary competition of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Not rated, but probably PG-13 for discussions of violence. Running time: 83 minutes; in English, and Hebrew and Arabic, with subtitles.

The film screens again: Tuesday, Jan. 27, 8:50 p.m., Redstone Cinemas 3, Park City; Friday, Jan. 30, noon, Holiday Village Cinemas 3, Park City; Saturday, Jan. 31, 6 p.m., Broadway Centre Cinemas 6, Salt Lake City; Sunday, Feb. 1, 12:30 p.m., Holiday Village Cinemas 1, Park City. Also screening on Sundance’s web portal, Thursday through Sunday, Jan. 29 to Feb. 1. 

Sundance review: 'Run Amok' tries to mine dark humor out of school tragedy, but can't sustain the balancing act to the end

A promising idea runs aground in “Run Amok,” writer-director NB Mager’s dark satire about kids and adults taking very different approaches in the aftermath of a school shooting a decade earlier.

Meg, charmingly played by Alyssa Marvin, is a nerdy overachieving sophomore at her high school, who lugs her harp from home to school regularly so she can practice twice as much. She lives with her aunt (Molly Ringwald) and uncle (Yul Vazquez), and her cousin, Penny (Sophia Torres), who’s usually annoyed by Meg’s artistic endeavors. Meg lives with these relatives because her mother, a teacher at the high school Meg and Penny now attend, was killed in a school shooting a decade earlier.

Now, with the school planning a 10th anniversary commemoration, Meg has proposed creating a theater piece — a musical that reenacts the events of that horrific day. Meg is vague on the details to her music teacher, Mr. Shelby (Patrick Wilson), and the principal (Margaret Cho) thinks Meg is just going to perform something innocuous, like “Amazing Grace.”

As rehearsals start, Meg dives into researching the shooting, which happened when she was just 4 years old. We learn uncomfortable details about the student who did the shooting, as Meg reaches out to his mom (Blair Sams), who has become a neighborhood pariah. We also learn about Mr. Shelby’s role in disarming and killing the shooter, which has made him a hero in the school. We also see that the shop teacher, Mr. Hunt (Bill Camp), has the most visible signs of PTSD from that day. 

Mager sets up a tricky high-wire act with this premise, cleverly exposing the conflict when teens want to explore the history that their elders would rather forget. Alas, it’s not sustainable, and the delicate balance of humor about tragedy in “Run Amok” comes crashing down in the final half hour. 

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‘Run Amok’

★★1/2

Screening in the U.S. Dramatic competition of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Not rated, but probably R for language and descriptions of violence. Running time: 103 minutes.

The film screens again: Tuesday, Jan. 27, 12:30 p.m., Redstone Cinemas 1, Park City; Thursday, Jan. 29, 9 p.m., Rose Wagner Center for the Performing Arts, Salt Lake City; Friday, Jan. 30, 8:45 p.m., The Ray, Park City; Saturday, Jan. 31, 7 p.m., Holiday Village Cinemas 2, Park City. Also screening on Sundance’s web portal, Thursday through Sunday, Jan. 29 to Feb. 1. 

Sundance review: 'Barbara Forever' pays tribute to the no-holds-barred filmmaking of pioneering lesbian director Barbara Hammer

Barbara Hammer was a singular and usually confrontational figure in American cinema, so it’s appropriate that directory Brydie O’Connor’s documentary about her, “Barbara Forever,” is so unique and in-your-face.

Hammer was a pioneer in the field of lesbian-focused film — which is a fancy way of saying she was out front about her sexuality, her lovers and her life when others were still in the shadows about being gay. She frequently carried her camera with her, and all of O’Connor’s movie is taken from Hammer’s archives (which are held at Yale and the Academy Museum).

Hammer held nothing back, particularly in showing herself. There is a remarkable amount of nudity throughout the film, as Hammer shot footage of herself through all stages of her life. There’s an incredible jump cut early in the film, juxtaposing Hammer as a young, athletic woman and as someone in the later stages of ovarian cancer. (She died in 2019.)

Through her films, Hammer chronicled not only her own life but the progress of gay liberation in America, starting in the 1970s and through to the legalization of gay marriage. People attending Sundance will get a kick out of footage from 1992, when her first feature-length film, “Nitrate Kisses,” premiered here. (There’s even a shot of John Cooper, the festival’s director from 2010 to 2020, as a wet-behind-the-ears volunteer.)

“Barbara Forever” is a challenging watch, but a necessary one — a movie that gives one of independent film’s most unique practitioners her long-delayed flowers.

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‘Barbara Forever’

★★★

Screening in the U.S. Documentary competition of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Not rated, but probably NC-17 for copious graphic nudity. Running time: 102 minutes. 

The film screens again: Wednesday, Jan. 28, 8:50 p.m., Redstone Cinemas 3, Park City; Friday, Jan. 30, 8:45 p.m., Park City Library, Park City; Saturday, Jan. 31, Broadway Centre Cinemas 3, Salt Lake City. Also screening on Sundance’s web portal, Thursday through Sunday, Jan. 29 to Feb. 1. 

Sundance review: 'The Moment' is a clever and frenetic mockumentary that gives Charli XCX a chance to satirize the music industry

Not since The Beatles in “A Hard Day’s Night” has a real pop star satirized themselves as thoroughly and as smartly as Charli XCX does in “The Moment,” a mock-documentary from director Aidan Zamiri that skewers the whole machinery behind rock ’n’ roll glory.

Charli plays herself, or a version of herself, as she’s getting ready to launch an arena tour to capitalize on the global success of her 2024 album “brat” and all the green-tinted “brat summer” trendiness that went along with it. As the rehearsals begin for the arena shows, everyone has an opinion of how it should go.

At the center, Charli is relying on her artistic adviser and friend, Celeste (Hailey Benton Gates), to keep the show true to the singer’s creative vision. But everyone — the hard-charging record company boss (Rosanna Arquette), Charli’s double-talking manager (Jamie Demetriou) and even her assistant (Trew Mullen) and her makeup artist (Kate Berlant) — wants to chime in, in an effort to keep the “brat” bandwagon moving.

The tension grows significantly when the label wants to bring in a hotshot film director, Johannes, played by Alexander Skarsgard. Johannes is a desirable director to the suits, because he has a track record making commercially successful music videos. Charli and Celeste think Johannes’ work is artistically devoid of style or substance, and would kill the “brat” movement.

Charli’s handling of the tour’s artistic voice is just one of the fires she’s putting out. She’s hearing a pitch for a “brat”-themed credit card. She runs into one of her shallow American friends (Rachel Sennott) in one nightclub bathroom, and at a spa in Ibiza she encounters Kylie Jenner. She’s also struggling with self-doubt that her artistic vision is worth the record label’s time and money.

“The Moment” isn’t just about the noise that surrounds a pop star, but also about the screaming in Charli XCX’s head as she juggles her artistic expectations with the hangers-on who only see Charli’s art as an ATM. 

Zamiri, who wrote the script by Bertie Brandes (from an original idea by Charli XCX), moves at a frenetic and highly energetic pace. (At the screening at Sundance, the staffer who introduced the film warned of high-speed strobing effects that could affect people with visual sensitivity.) The rapid edits and jump cuts between, for example, the record label’s London offices to the Dagenham warehouse where the tour rehearsal is going on, are reflective of the quicksilver mind of a singer who is making a pointed statement about art vs. commerce. 

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‘The Moment’

★★★1/2

Screening in the Premieres section of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Rated R for language throughout and some drug material. Running time: 103 minutes.

The film screens again: Wednesday, Jan. 28, 4:40 p.m., Redstone Cinemas 2, Park City; Friday, Jan. 30, 9 a.m., Redstone Cinemas 1, Park City; Saturday, Jan. 31, 2:30 p.m., The Ray, Park City. The movie is slated to open in theaters in select cities on Jan. 30, then more widely (including in Salt Lake City) on Feb. 13.